[CQ-Contest] What is the secret to success in SS?

[Jim White, K4OJ]

After a lousy year for me I decided not to have it be a complete wash and
did some research for my fellow club members...here is a brief stat analysis
of this years SS CW log from K4OJ....I may have fried up some computers and
rigs but Excel is going strong!  I listened in awe at the runs in the early
hours of SS - including those from KH6 and KL7, heard some awesome numbers
early on but Sunday just did not produce for anyone it seems...welcome back
Mr. Fisher.

It has been said by many hams, including SK's, that the secret to SS is your
"footprint" [think K5LZO may have coined that but not certain]...what this
means is am I putting a good signal into a well populated (SS participant
wise) area.

How do you define a good target for your footprint? The data below (1091
QSOs) is from my log, and I am fairly certain it will follow through to
others that what you need to do is target not just an area but a CLUB.

The Affiliated Club Competition is one of the neatest things about SS....if
you don't think so compare this years log versus last years and see if you
don't find more W6 QSOs than last year - an obvious attempt to regain the
Unlimited gavel by NCCC is underway [they lost it to a big time effort last
year by a well coordinated effort by the Black Holers - SMC].

The representation below is by call area with possessions and all Canadians
lumped together as Affiliated Clubs do not seriously enter into these
areas...result is 12 distinct areas with their total QSOs and a ranking by
call area - your mileage may vary!

It is interesting to note that the greatest volume of QSOs for me is from
the 4th call area...this is very explainable when you realize how big the
fourth area is as far as the number of contesting clubs in it...there are
PVRC, TCG SECC and FCG (love these guys) and others all stirring up their
troops to make the QSOs for their club score....this is part of what makes
SS different and fun in my opinion.

The W9's and W6's are two and three in my log...i.e. SMC (73 Illinois!) and
NCCC duking it out....

I have a hunch the MWA also shuck its members cages, too!  As well as
perhaps the WWDXC guys...

A better way to group the data would be by ARRL division but it is less than
24 hours after SS and I am not up to it - the software could sort out the
call area much easier...do you know who is in the Roanoke Division?  The
resulting sort would I am sure point even more convincingly to the major
club's respective turf....

Tnx to K8CC's NA for some easily imported files which allowed for rapid data
crunching...once again NA never crashed this year - been using it for SS for
over a decade now it seems...knock on wood!

If you can't beat em - crunch the data!

Thanks for all the QSO's...never thought I would say so but I am looking
forward to the cycle going down so once again my higher antennas will be
competitive!   Always good to hear the boys on...like the others - it seems
QRP activity was up - and why do they insist on repeating everything!
Disagree wish the assertion that SS needs to be shortened as everyone runs
out of QSOs on Sunday - we are just making them faster earlier on - look at
the total QSOs in SS by the winners - consistently between 14 and 1500 on
CW...a lot of us are just getting better at SO2R (possibly from the
receiving end as well...I get called a lot by big gun types on their second
rigs...don't you?)

The average retiree would have done well form FL this weekend, with his
tribander at 40 feet or so - I made over half my 10/15/20 meter QSOs on my
backup antenna (a low tribander)....thanks to WC4E for coming over SS early
AM to spin my fixed lowest 20 meter yagi - a 204BA at 33 feet which was the
other half of my high band QSOs!  I was amazed at how the band noise and
signals all picked up when I picked the bottom ant again and
again...probably should have put up a ground mounted poorly grounded
vertical for the high bands - probably would have had more responses to my
CQ's!

station  K4OJ
contest:  ARRL SS CW 2001

Mult   QSOs    Rank

CT   13
EMA   18
ME   8
NH   20
RI   4
VT   2
WMA   5 70   10

ENY   12
NLI   10
NNJ   17
NNY   4
SNJ   8
WNY   20 71   9

DE   3
EPA   27
MDC   41
WPA   9 80   8

AL   9
GA   14
KY   12
NC   23
NFL   11
SC   3
SFL   8
TN   19
VA   39
WCF   9 147   1

AR   4
LA   10
MS   6
NM   12
NTX   33
OK   12
STX   29
WTX   5 111   5

EB   19
LAX   15
ORG   10
SB   8
SCV   34
SDG   8
SF   9
SJV   5
SV   19 127   3

AZ   18
EWA   7
ID   9
MT   4
NV   4
OR   27
UT   8
WWA   24
WY   3 104   6

MI   35
OH   33
WV   13 81   7

IL   73
IN   30
WI   32 135   2

CO   27
IA   12
KS   12
MN   39
MO   16
ND   1
NE   7
SD   2 116   4

PAC   4
AK   4
VI   3
PR   2 13   12

AB   6
BC   4
MAR   1
MB   3
NL   2
NWT   1
ON   16
QC   2
SK   3 38   11


Bed time.............

Tnx to FCG members for helping me get the antennas ready and to all my
friends for the QSOS (nice job N1RL from VY1JA running at the gitgo on 10 -
were you there on that freq for what - 5 hours??????)

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz


Jim, K4OJ


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